Wednesday, March 26, 2008

I've been wanting to go to Wallingford since Pana first mentioned the idea of this blog to me. A coworker of mine basically said that it was probably only because of Trophy Cupcakes. Guilty! Another reason, though, was that it was mostly unexplored territory for me. I have been there numerous times for very specific reasons, such as my friend who lives there, the fancy Taco Time (of which I meant to take a picture of but didn't for some dumb reason!), the theatres and Dick's Drive-In after a night of drinking in the U-District. It just seemed like a fun area that I had not had a chance to really get to know, even though I've been there so many times.

We got off to a bit of a late start and I didn't really get do a lot of prior research since I was too busy lying around all morning nursing a whole-bottle-of-wine-last-night headache. Boyfriend was joining us, so he, Pana and I all crammed into her tiny 1974 BMW 2002 (aka the Watchmobile) and hit the road to another adventure. I want to add that we had to take I-5 due to the Viaduct closure, which was a slightly harrowing experience since Pana's car doesn't have functional signal lights. Actually, Pana seemed quite fine with it, I am perhaps just a wuss?

In keeping with tradition our first stop was to another beer store, Bottleworks. I hope that there is a fine beer selection in every neighborhood we visit (hey, a girl can dream, can't she?) Bottleworks is a small dark store lined with refrigerators filled with a very nice selection of imported and domestic microbrew beers. I believe Pana has mentioned this previously, but we are big fans of buying random food and drink from other countries or things with weird labels. You should see the selection we come home with when we go to Uwajimaya. Anyhoo, Bottleworks – very cute and stocked full of fun things with funny labels that all scream to be bought and downed immediately. Pana ended up with a beer with what looked like Russian or Czech on the label and said Kanar Beer and also with Bernardus Prior 8 beer due to the religious man on the label. I bought what I think was a raspberry lambic ale that said Oud Beersel on it, which I proceeded to say about 50 times. Oud Beersel! The Framboise Oud Beersel was delicious, but pricey. Why do I have such weird and expensive beer tastes? Boyfriend bought a wheat/hefeweizen type beer because it had the Grolsch style cap and he also loves the wheat beers. Grolsh is also fun to say. Grolsh. The staff was very nice about letting us be weird and take photos at the counter of our purchases. I got a very good vibe off of this place. I think if I lived here I'd know each of the employees and come in regularly; it just felt so comfortable and inviting. Or maybe I just really like beer. Oud Beersel!

Bottleworks is located right next to the QFC with the blue neon Wallingford sign, so we stopped for a quick photo-op. The letters from the sign are from the former Food Giant sign, which was red. I found only one picture of the old sign, and it isn't great, but you get the idea. In my search for a picture I found out that the Wallingford sign was in response to the locals that were up in arms about the Food Giant sign coming down when QFC took over in the nineties. I also found a random article about neon signs that used the color change from red to blue as an example for how neon works, but um, it was tl;dr. I have a short attention span, dude. Good thing you don't, I'm long winded.

Next stop: Wallingford Center (aka the place Trophy Cupcakes lives!) which is in the old Interlake Public School building. It is a very cute building with nice little shops inside…that are EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE. I'm sorry, I know that there will be some people who defend this place, but they have more money than I do. I saw a lot of things I wanted, but nothing I wanted to pay that much for. I think the main draw to this place is Trophy Cupcakes and Chutney's. We stopped in a shop that had many cute trinkets, cards and jewelry. It also happened to have a very large selection of Tin Tin memorabilia, which Boyfriend went gaga over. He particularly fell in love with a cool t-shirt that clocked in at $52! WHAT? This was not a fancy t-shirt, this was a plain old cotton t with a screen print. The other Tin Tin stuff wasn't all that different. Boyfriend was sad. Um, sorry Boyfriend, maybe we can find some stuff online for cheaper.

We briefly wandered through a place calledPharmaca(which is apparently coming to our side of town in the West Seattle Junction) and it seemed to be a mix of natural and over-the-counter medications along with an actual pharmacy. The one in West Seattle should be interesting since it is across the street from a Super Supplements, which might be hard to compete with. But they will have a pharmacy, so who knows. The only interesting thing that happened here was Boyfriend asked "Isn't that what they gave to Jesus?":

We gave up exploring the shopping center and decided to head right on to the main event:Trophy Cupcakes. We decided that each of us wanted two cupcakes each, and Pana had promised 6 to her lady, so we needed a dozen ($33). We each tried to choose wisely, but apparently not wisely enough because there was some crazy trading going on after our purchase. I ended up with a triple coconut and a snickerdoodle and decided to eat the coconut first. Seriously, nothing short of AMAZING. My happy place is inside of this cupcake. Forget the other Seattle cupcake chains, this is the place to go for moist delicious cake and perfect buttercream frosting. Pana had the popular red velvet, which I had traded her for the snickerdoodle, which she enjoyed very much. Boyfriend loves carrot cake, so he had a carrot walnut which he is still talking about. It was a true zen-dessert moment. Basically I want to lay in a fluffy bed of trophy cupcakes.

So now that we were all full of sugar and happy, we figured we needed to eat lunch. Because it is always a good idea to stuff yourself until you can't move, right? Well, I guess you would consider it linner since it was almost 4 pm. This was when we realized that we hadn't done enough research. Basically, none of us really had much of an idea where to go after we had cupcakes, which were obviously going to be one of the highlights. We walked by the Rusty Pelican, which I only knew about because our high school friend, let's call her Preggy, had a shirt that said "I ate it raw at the Rusty Pelican". We weren't overly wowed by the sign, plus I had it in my head that there were restaurants in houses that needed to be visited, so we hopped in the Watchmobile and drove in the direction of Stone Way. After a few telephone calls and some driving around we decided on Bizarro Italian Café, but unfortunately they didn't open for an hour. We walked around the corner to Blue Star, but unfortunately I was being difficult and decided I wanted to go back to the little orange house with a Mexican restaurant in it.

So we drove back to Chile Pepper. As I said, little orange house! More restaurants should be in houses. Plus, every time I've been in the neighborhood I've wondered about the place. We had a little trouble deciding what each person should get, as each of us has a slight issue with getting something the same as someone else. We did agree that we should get guacamole to go with the chips. Their salsa was tasty and spicy, and as always there was not enough of it. We were super excited when the guac came, but it turns out it was pretty enough, but not exactly flavorful. Basically it didn't taste like it had any salt or lime/lemon in it. It was disappointing because usually if guac isn't great it is usually good. This was just blah. But then we were delivered a pleasant surprise, soup! Didn't even know that was coming, but thanks. It was a slightly spicy and super tasty brothy lentil soup with onion and cilantro. Now, I am a BIG fan of soup, but I am also pretty picky. I don't like bland things, and I'm usually not a big fan of boring lentil soup. This stuff was in no way boring. It was delicious. Suddenly I was extremely excited about my main dish. I ordered something called verde mole with pork in it, Boyfriend ordered albondigas (Spanish/Mexican? meatballs) and Pana ordered a red sauced pork dish. I don't know how to be nice about it, my food was bland. The menu promised delicious spices, but mostly it was mushy flavorless green sauce and tender chunks of pork. It wasn't inedible, in fact I ate it all because I was hungry. Pana's and Boyfriend's dishes were certainly better, but not great. It all seemed so disappointing since we had such high hopes. They didn't even have hot sauce on the tables, and I got the distinct impression that the man working there would have been much happier if he never had any patrons at all.

All of that didn't stop us from taking photos, though! Did I mention that it is a restaurant in a little orange house?

Now full, slightly disappointed and pretty tired (wine headache was lingering) we decided scenery would be our best bet. I think I forgot to mention before, but the day we went was unseasonably warm for Seattle, and it has basically been freezing ever since. I literally had shorts and a t-shirt on for most of the day and was totally comfortable. So we walked to the old Lincoln High School building which is currently housing Garfield High School. It was pretty, and pretty boring. It does look much like what you'd imagine a high school on tv would look like, though.

What visit to Wallingford would be complete without going to Gasworks Park? I think my adventure cohorts would agree that this was our best stop of the day. Gasworks has a great set up and a beautiful view. Boyfriend renamed it Danger Park because there are a lot of things to climb on and fall off and basically cause mischief on. I went down a fire pole that seemed extremely high, even for an adult. Pana and I meandered around taking pictures and daydreaming while Boyfriend gallivanted around like a kid. I had memories of being here as a kid and looking at a zodiac thing on the top of a small hill, and somehow the hill has grown and the zodiac thing is also a sundial. Boyfriend wondered when the fence around the large gasworks structure went up. We all wondered about rolling down the hill, but then saw all the dogs and thought better of it. We roamed and played and basically had a great time. We all decided that we should have a picnic or a barbecue here once the weather gets better. I was planning on researching the park and where the gasworks structures came from and the history of the park, but then I realized that I am obviously no good at research and honestly would like to enjoy just for what it is, a beautiful park with a beautiful view of Seattle.

By the time we were done at the park it was starting to cool off and we were all very tired. We did one more drive through to take photos and see if there was anywhere else we wanted to go, and this is when we realized we missed one very important place: The Erotic Bakery!

This place could be great. It could be tasteful and tacky at the same time. It could be a real bakery with yummy treats. It could be many wonderful things…but it's not. I had a bad experience once before when researching a cake option for Boyfriend. The store employee/manager (?) who I spoke with while visiting at the time reeked of alcohol and was obviously put off by visitors. This was when I was told that cake was cake, and that I may as well buy one that day, Tuesday, for a party on Saturday, because it "won't go bad". Hate to be a snob, but I like fresh baked goods (like from Trophy!). Also, it is basically a mini Lover's Package in the front. I realize that all the penis necklaces and boob masks serve a purpose as a one stop shop for bachelorette and bachelor parties, but it would be so much better if it were a real bakery. Also, on our visit on Saturday, there didn't seem to be anyone working, or rather, if they were we didn't see them. This is what allowed me to take photos, which there is a sign posted letting us know that this was not ok. I tried searching for something funny enough to buy, but all of it was just too much for me and I was ready to go home.

All in all, it was not a horrible day. It was not amazing, but it was fun to be with my friends and spend some time doing interesting things. I think I will reserve it for when I go and visit my friend there, see a movie at the Guild 45th Theatres, go to a specific restaurant or get cupcakes. I think part of the reason our day wasn't amazing is because the real wonder of Wallingford isn't in the weird and crazy things to do, but the beautiful houses and nice community feel. I'm sure it would be quite a wonderful neighborhood to live in.

I remember when I was a kid we lived in Wallingford for about a year...I used to be able to climb all over the machinery at GasWorks park. Now I wonder if that was such a good thing...so for time frame's sake- as recently as 1981 there was no fence. Another great neighborhood post!